NASA Finds "New Earth"

They found Floston Paradise?

lol.

There are probably millions of new earths, we just can't see them.

Sure our earth ended up in the perfect orbit, held onto its atmosphere, has water and everything else necessary.

But seriously, we're a single grain of sand among countless beaches, randomly ending up in just the right orbit. There are probably countless others that also found the sweet spot like Earth did, kept its minerals, atmosphere, water, etc. There are probably countless others that are completely different, maybe with lifeforms based on other elements.

They may also no longer be existent. Seriously, physicists and astronomers are just now seeing light from stars and other items that probably disappeared milllions, even billions of years ago..

Must be a fun job to speculate on things that are no longer there. Why not concentrate on what's around us, the Moon, Mars, etc. Makes a lot more sense than what they're doing now.

Here come the flames, but I expect them.

We only recently developed the ability to detect Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars only hundreds of light years away.  The Kepler planet hunting telescope is unable to detect planets millions or billions of light years away.

 

It is fun to speculate on the possibility that galaxies we detect billions of light years away may have lost millions of planets in the time it takes that light to get to Earth.  But we also need to consider that millions of planets may have formed in that time.  Our planet Earth didn't exist 5 billion years ago yet we can observe galaxies that are way more than 5 billion light years away.

 

Those running the various SETI projects are very interested in Kepler's findings of nearby Earth-sized planets.  They are good points in space to concentrate their search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.

 

So Stan, if we manage to start receiving information over some kind of interstellar internet due to help from the Kepler planet hunting telescope, you are in favor of cutting funds on the project in order to collect moon dust?

 

I also find this subject very interesting, and always a sucker for shows covering this subject either on History or Science Channel.

 

If this actually turns out to be Earth's twin, well... move over, Venus.

Maybe came off a little negative, but of course I'd be all for whatever new information Kepler receives.

Yet you said it in your own post --Our planet Earth didn't exist 5 billion years ago yet we can observe galaxies that are way more than 5 billion light years away--

What we're seeing is light coming from 5 billion years ago, the galaxies could be long gone by now, but like you mention, new planets and systems may have formed.. I'm pro space exploration of any sort, so don't think I'm arguing with you. The whole Moon/Mars comment was kind of a poorly written joke. We already know a lot about them and I'm certainly not going to support the untold billions it would cost to go back to the moon..

I'd much rather know more about true "outer" space. Very interesting to learn about the SETI projects and pointing them towards some of these new earth type formations. Now that they have better targets to point at, might actually hear or learn something from them.

Oh wait, am I a dork for laughing at that?

I worked on a proposal, for the manufacturing of primary mirror, for what could have lead to the first coronograph planet finder mission. Unfortunately, as these things go, the project was killed by; JPL wasn't able to do it. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Planet_Finder

 

But some of that (I wasn't involved) ultimately supported these occulting missions; and Kepler has been very successful.